


deafened.

by idiosyncratic_starcluster



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Fights, Inspired by Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia, M/M, Near Death Experiences, Quirks (My Hero Academia), but with a happy ending?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:01:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22243012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idiosyncratic_starcluster/pseuds/idiosyncratic_starcluster
Summary: Written for an ask on Tumblr: "Things you said that made me feel like shit"And the screaming. Oikawa will never forget it, and how it gets deafened in a fraction of momentum by a single swift or air and a flash of bright light, flying — no, running — mere centimetres from his ear. Silently, just like he always is, but Oikawa doesn't miss the goosebumps, can't fail to recognize Nishinoya even when he just feels him.
Relationships: Nishinoya Yuu & Oikawa Tooru, Nishinoya Yuu/Oikawa Tooru
Comments: 1
Kudos: 44





	deafened.

**Author's Note:**

> **PSA:** boku no hero academia!au ; alternatively, if you don't know the manga/anime, heroes!au.  
>  **Oikawa's Quirk guidelines:[here](https://twitter.com/franboyant_riot/status/1214540407339651073)** || **Noya's Quirk guidelines:[here](https://twitter.com/franboyant_riot/status/1201759526048980992).**

It happens fast. Too fast for anyone to fully realize it, but to him? To Oikawa time is relative, and though it should be counted as luck he didn't miss a second of it. Smoke spreading across the sky in black clouds and soaking the air, the main building falling apart, fire-fighters and Pro Heroes trying to ensure every civilian to safety.  
  
And the screaming. Oikawa will never forget it, and how it gets deafened in a fraction of momentum by a single swift or air and a flash of bright light, flying — no, _running_ — mere centimetres from his ear. Silently, just like _he_ always is, but Oikawa doesn't miss the goosebumps, can't fail to recognize Nishinoya even when he just feels him. And so he turns around out of reflex and follows the lightning going upwards, eyes wide open.  
  
Gravity does nothing to Nishinoya when his body is discomposed in electrons and raw energy, but it certainly does when he shifts back into flesh and bone — which he does; _midair_. There's something falling that Oikawa didn't notice ( to which he winces because it's a person; _idiot, idiot, damned idiot!_ ) and the lightning just _stops_ in time to turn into a petite boy in a shock of sparkles. He's waiting with open arms — a quickly unfolded insulating blanket in his hand — and Oikawa feels his blood run cold and his hands shake when the young girl collides into Nishinoya's covered arms.  
  
It happens so fast nobody notices until it's too late. But time runs through Oikawa's veins like a river, it's the only ace up his sleeve he's got, and he _needs_ it _now_. Even if he feels paralysed, he can't miss — _Don't blink_ , he tells himself, _or it's not gonna work!_  
  
Luminescent emerald fills his eyes and tickles his fingertips. He aims, stares and holds his breath. He only releases it when Nishinoya's body stops ten centimetres to the ground.  
  


* * *

  
  
When the time comes and students get into internships at Pro Heroes' agencies to know what the real career is like, that's when the whole thing — saving people, fighting villains and criminals — becomes less idealistic and more of a reality. And reality, Oikawa reckons, is gruesome and tough and scary. It doesn't matter how powerful your Quirk is or how talented you are; you must have the strength of heart to put your life on the line out of selflessness and instincts.  
  
Oikawa Tooru's Quirk is not particularly flashy. Despite how powerful of a hero in training he is the truth is, he's worked his ass off to nurture his power and make it bloom the way it did. Messing with timelines, being able to make them go forward, backwards, slow down or stop altogether — it sounds cool, doesn't it? He only needs to keep his eyes on the target; a twirl of his fingers, even just the a hand, be it clockwise or otherwise. It looks effortless and pretty, but it actually takes control and concentration, and just like any other Quirk it has its drawbacks. Still, he manages better than others do.  
  
"Because you're pretty cool, Oika-san! Keep it up!" — normally, he would look down to a statement like this, especially if said by someone like Nishinoya, whose Quirk is as striking and rowdy as ever by mere nature. But the thing is, he couldn't even if he tried. And he did try.  
  
He remembers meeting that tiny boy way before high school, once, and then he sees him again during the Sports Festival. Up against each other. Oikawa though it would be easy, "As long as I can see you", he said. But it wasn't.  
  
"Most people are usually too slow and they freak out because they don't want to get hurt. But you? You're good! Let's fight again sometime!"  
  
It is not easy to catch a glimpse of lightning in broad daylight, as infuriating as it is to admit it. So it's a wonder — or maybe the dread and adrenaline he felt — that Oikawa manages this time.  
  


* * *

  
  
The girl Nishinoya saved turns out to be another young hero in training with a flying Quirk who got affected by all the smoke and gasses. Oikawa sits with a half-melted ice pack on his knee and watches from afar as she hands Nishinoya the insulating blanket and thanks him with teary eyes, obviously in shock.  
  
Nishinoya is flustered, Oikawa can tell from his posture, but laughs and says out loud that he will catch her and anyone who is in need as many times as he has to. With so much confidence for someone who was about to fucking die that it makes Oikawa grimace.  
  
A paramedic offers him a bottle of water and asks him if his breathing has improved. Oikawa gets distracted thanking her with a smile that doesn't really reach his eyes, but he doesn't miss another person approaching them. And when she leaves and he lets that fake smile slip off his lips, Nishinoya is there in front of him.  
  
"Yuu-chan," Oikawa exhales. "How nice it is to see you."  
  
"Hey," Nishinoya looks sheepish, which is rather odd for him but really, for all Oikawa cares, he should be ashamed. Instead, he looks at him and has the audacity to say: "You were great back there, I owe you".  
  
"You... owe me, you say?" It comes out like a whisper, as cold as snow.  
  
Oikawa can't help but feel his blood boil, even though it's freezing and his heart is beating so fast in his ribcage that it's _painful_. He can't even focus on Nishinoya's lively sable eyes; all he can see is a speckle of lightning passing him by and turning into flesh and bone and then _falling_ to the ground. What he's feeling, he realizes, is fear. _If I had blinked... and missed him... he's always so fast... that was..._ "Stupid," he spits.  
  
Nishinoya's eyes widen, he barely flinches. He knows, he's trembling too, if even a little bit. He says it's his electric charge settling itself to normal, but Oikawa knows that deep down it's not. Not completely.  
  
"I know, I'm—"  
  
"Don't say you're sorry," Nishinoya feels a pang of guilt, hearing the ever so slight crack in Oikawa's velvety voice. "I know you wouldn't mean it."  
  
" _I wasn't gonna say it._ " It comes off harsher than Nishinoya had intended. He frowns, something in him stirs; it's the awareness of the fact that he is not sorry indeed. Not at all.  
  
"Of course you weren't." Oikawa gets up slowly, shaking dust off his costume.  
  
"What's that supposed to mean? Hey," The younger boy reaches out before Oikawa can actually turn on his heels and leave. Nishinoya knows that he probably just wants to retrieve and be on his own for a while, but the thing is, he doesn't want to let Oikawa walk away like this. He can't. "Speak up, Tooru. I'm not a psychic, I need you to talk to me!"  
  
"I was _this close_ , Yuu." Oikawa can feel the heat and electricity radiating off Nishinoya's skin, warm and vibrant, and though he finds it comforting, he refuses to touch him and get stung just for the sake of feeling how alive he is. Because right now, it would remind him how much of a close call that was. "What if I blinked?" he asks out loud.  
  
"What if," His voice hardens not to quiver. "I didn't see you and couldn't catch you?"  
  
"But _you did_ ," Nishinoya replies. "I knew you would, I knew you were there and I trusted, no, _I trust you_ to catch me!"  
  
"Well, that makes you even more of an idiot!" Nishinoya stiffens at that. "I won't be right behind you forever. How can you be so stupid? Just because we go on dates and kiss? Is that really enough to gain your trust?"  
  
"It doesn't mean jack shit that we're together!" The younger boy shouts, fists closed and eyes shut. His words echo through the air and ring in Oikawa's ears with force and raw sentiment. "I didn't think, okay? I didn't, there was no time! It was a gut feeling, and even if you had missed, the girl would have been fine. I'm supposed to be a hero, _that's what we do!_ "  
  
"You pretentious little..."  
  
"Oi!"  
  
"I can see you shaking and it's pissing me off. So, so much! Is it because you realize that you could have died of because you could have electrocuted the girl to death?!"  
  
Nishinoya freezes, and Oikawa knows why: he knows how much of a peculiar spot he has touched, but if there's anything Nishinoya is not, it's fragile.  
  
"That's what the designed insulation equipment is for, she's fine! What is it, really? Did I scare you?"  
  
"What do you think, idiot?! Am I supposed to praise you? Tell you you're brave?"  
  
"You're supposed to stop yelling at me for starters!"  
  
People nearby are starting to give them odd looks; if they weren't so invested in their argument, they would have noticed a couple of their fellow mates debating on whether or not come in between them. Nishinoya doesn't care about anyone of them. He never does, and _he knows_ that's what is buggering Oikawa: his stubbornness.  
  
"I'm not gonna apologize, Tooru," There's a voice in the back of his mind that tells him to just quit it and apologize for being so reckless, but for some reason he can't. Oikawa should know that, they're not dissimilar when it comes to stubborness. "I don't regret what I did. You of all people should know, you would have done the same thing!"  
  
"I WOULD NEVER HURT YOU LIKE THIS, MORON!"  
  
Oikawa tugs harshly at the front Nishinoya's collar, and the latter feels his heart skip a beat, stop for a moment and hurt like a bitch as he watches with wide eyes and tense shoulders Oikawa's cinnamon brown eyes fill with angry tears. So much that it steals his breath away.  
  
He tries to speak, his mouth opens and his voices comes out in hesitant whispers for the first time in forever. Memories of the past hour are flooding his mind, Oikawa's hands tremble and Nishinoya really, really wants to say to him that _he is sorry for scaring him_ instead of giving him a choked sob and a push as a reply like he does.  
  
"I'm... not a moron, you're a moron!" he cries out. "Damn it! C'mere!"  
  
And just like that, Nishinoya pulls Oikawa down to his level and throws his arms around his shoulders, even if given their height difference it would be more comfortable the other way around. He hugs him tight, so much it hurts both of them. But it's okay, Oikawa is kind of hurting him as well, letting out meaningless insults against his neck.  
  
"Fucking, reckless... moron!"  
  
"Shut up, I... I didn't mean to make you cry!"  
  
"I'm not crying, _you_ are!"  
  
"'Cause I'm mad that you're mad, I... ugh!"  
  
_You're a moron, too, and I'm sorry for hurting you._  



End file.
